Word&Way News: Nov. 22
Here’s the weekly roundup from Word&Way. In addition to a review of a new book on Christian Nationalism that is free for anyone to read, paid subscribers to A Public Witness received a report on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church ending celebrations of a Russian saint.
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Top 5 at wordandway.org
On Sackcloth and Grief Hoodies. Sarah Blackwell reflected on how we might treat each other differently if we literally wore our hearts on our sleeves.
Speaker of the House Takes Southern Baptist Approach to Covering Up Gaetz’s Alleged Sex Crimes. Brian Kaylor wrote about efforts to hide an ethics report amid Matt Gaetz’s short-lived effort to become the next U.S. attorney general.
Staying Grounded: Ten Rules for Engaging in Politics Without Losing Your Mind. Will Wright offered a practical guide to navigating the chaos of modern politics with clarity, empathy, and purpose.
Texas Board Advances Plan To Allow Bible Material in Elementary School Lessons. Nadia Lathan reported on a controversial push for more Christian Nationalistic public school curriculum.
House Passes Anti-Terror Financing Bill That May Punish Nonprofits. Yonat Shimron reported on legislation that’s opposed by religious and civil liberties groups.
Dangerous Dogma
This week: Tony Campolo on Faith as Babylon Falls
(Author and sociologist Tony Campolo died this week at the age of 89; this episode is a rerun of a conversation with him in May 2020).
by Brian Kaylor, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief
A Catholic church in Lucerne, Switzerland, has a new confessional booth option. An AI Jesus.
In news that unfortunately didn’t come from The Onion, the church is encouraging people to come and talk with AI Jesus and ask questions. On a screen, people can even see what looks like a White man with long hair looking back through a confessional grid. They call it “Deus in machina” (God in machine).
“I was surprised, it was so easy, and though it’s a machine, it gave me so much advice,” one person told a reporter after talking with the AI Jesus.
“He helped me with questions I had, like how I can help other people understand him better and come closer to him,” another said, apparently thinking they were becoming closer to the AI Jesus and thus also the real Jesus.
I cannot emphasize enough how horrible and blasphemous this is. Creating an AI avatar of any biblical character can be problematic, leading people to confuse what the machine says with what’s actually in the biblical text. But as bad as an AI Peter, Paul, or Mary would be (biblical characters or folk trio version), an AI Jesus is even more problematic.
Representing Jesus this way and literally creating new things for Jesus to say is dangerous. And since there are debates over how to interpret the Bible, whoever programs the AI Jesus gets to make judgments that now seem like edicts straight from the mouth of God. For instance, since the AI Jesus is in a Catholic church, it — I will not use pronouns here to suggest the machine is Jesus — defends the ban on women as priests.
A “God” machine is a horrible idea, especially when we suggest the machine is God talking to us about matters of faith or how to live. Yet, this idea is coming not from a science fiction writer but from a church! May God save us from the “God” machines!
Other News of Note
Phil Williams of NewsChannel 5 reported on an effort by podcasters to create a Christian Nationalistic community in Tennessee.
A conservative Christian group in Idaho is lobbying for legislation to require Bible reading in public schools. The group’s president argued, “Government should promote Christian values.”
Clergy joined parents and others to testify in an Ohio House of Representatives committee hearing against a bill that would require public schools to allow students time away from classes to receive religious instruction.
Several large school districts in Oklahoma announced they will not show a video that Ryan Walters, the state's superintendent of public instruction, said he was requiring to be shown to students. In the video, Walters said a prayer for Donald Trump — making it the latest in a series of efforts by Walters to inject Christian Nationalism into public schools.
“If you just leave it in the hands of a public school teacher that may be not able to actually teach it because they weren’t taught it themselves, then it can cause a tremendous amount of confusion.” —Republican U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma warning against a push in his state to teach the Bible in public schools.
A music video by Sabrina Carpenter led to a Catholic priest being investigated and stripped of his duties.
Myles Werntz wrote for Christianity Today a critique of the new Bonhoeffer film as one that “bears little resemblance to reality.”
Ruth Graham of the New York Times reported on the National Bible Bee in which children compete to demonstrate their ability to memorize Bible verses.
Bobby Ross of The Christian Chronicle wrote about Ukrainian refugees in Texas preparing a special Thanksgiving feast to thank Christians who welcomed them to the United States.
Liuan Huska of Sojourners wrote about a Lutheran church in Michigan growing wheat to make its own communion bread.
Photo of the Week
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